=====================================
The Algemeiner: By Edwin Black
8-02-2015
For the
full article go to: http://tinyurl.com/nveff9b
Last year, Congressional
legislators were astonished to learn that the Palestinian Authority was issuing
monthly payouts totaling between $3 and 7 million as salaries and other
financial rewards to specific terrorists and their families.
The money was channeled, in part,
through the Ministry of Prisoners pursuant to the Law of the Prisoner. The
law set forth a graduated scale, pegging monthly salaries to the length of
Israeli jail sentences, which generally reflects the severity of the crime and
the number of people killed and/or injured.
Thousands of documents, newly obtained by this
reporter through a lawsuit to unseal court-protected files, demonstrate that
these payouts are not blind automated payments. Rather, senior Palestinian
Authority officials as high as President Mahmoud Abbas scrutinize the details
of each case, the specific carnage caused, and the personal details of each
terrorist act before approving salaries and awarding honorary ranks in
either the PA government or the military.
Ministry of Prisoners spokesman
Amr Nasser has explained, “We are very proud of this program and we have
nothing to hide.” Nonetheless, in response to the international furor, the
Palestinian Authority announced that it would replace the
Ministry of Prisoners with an outside PLO commission known as
the Higher National Commission for Prisoners and Detainees Affairs.
The PA is dependent upon foreign
donor countries to supply much of its budget, which now exceeds $4.2 billion annually.
About ten percent of the PA budget, more than $400 million, is contributed
annually by United States foreign aid. The U.S. and many other countries have
enacted laws forbidding any payments when the monies directly or indirectly
support or encourage terrorism.
The interdepartmental bureaucratic notations the
Palestinian Authority has recorded on each terrorist before approving the level
of salaried compensation is extensive. For example, one prominent case involved
Ahmad Talab Mustafa Barghouti, who personally coordinated numerous terrorist
acts. These included a January 2002 shooting spree on Jaffa Street in
Jerusalem, killing two and wounding 37; a March 2002 shooting spree at a Tel
Aviv restaurant, killing three and wounding 31; and finally a March 27, 2002,
attempt to smuggle an explosive suicide belt in an ambulance. The Israel
Defense Forces arrested Ahmad. On July 30, 2002, a military court
concluded that he was responsible for murdering 12 Israelis, and Barghouti was
sentenced to 13 life sentences.
According to on-going internal Palestinian Authority
security reviews dated February 3, 2009, and July 6, 2009, Barghouti’s special
compensation began retroactively to July 1, 2002, the first of the month that
the 13 life sentences were imposed. At the time of his arrest, Barghouti was a
Sergeant in the Palestinian Police. As a reward, while in an Israeli prison,
Barghouti’s annual salary of 12,953 Israeli shekels was continued and gradually
escalated when he was promoted to First Sergeant.
Still in prison, Barghouti was promoted again, this
time to Warrant Officer, pursuant to a November 13, 2008, Presidential Order
15999/3, according to Palestinian internal security records. One document lists
Barghouti’s bank account as account 36079 at the Housing Bank for Trade and
Finance in Ramallah. A related document tabulates additional monthly
allocations for Barghouti’s two named beneficiaries, showing they jointly
received 900 shekels monthly in 2002, beginning the month he was sentenced.
That monthly allocation rose to 1,000 shekels in January 2004. The beneficiary
payments were deposited into account 628134 at the Arab Bank’s al Bireh Branch
9030, the documents show.
In another case, terrorist Sa’id
Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan went to a busy Jerusalem street around 2:30
p.m. on January 22, 2002, and began randomly shooting passers-by. Two
people were murdered: Sarah Hamburger, 79, and
Orna Sandler, 56. Dozens of others were injured. Police shot and killed Ramadan
at the scene.
Just five days later, on January 27, 2002, Ramadan’s
case was reviewed by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Social Affairs for
martyrdom status and to determine the financial benefits that would accrue to
the family. That review was conducted by the Martyr’s Families and Injured Care
Establishment, a little known organization originally created in 1969 by the
Palestine Liberation Organization to systematize financial benefits to those
wounded or killed in terrorist attacks deemed acts of “martyrdom.”
“Martyrdom Establishment” compensation is dispensed
worldwide, wherever the terrorist act takes place, according to a 2010
Palestinian Authority Social Ministry report. The report states that by 2009,
more than 288 million shekels were paid in the program, of which more than 97
million went outside Israel and the Palestinian region to reward international
terrorism.
In Ramadan’s case, the opening file noted that his
body was still in Israeli custody. Kuwait-born Ramadan’s employment was listed
as a Sergeant in the Palestinian Maritime Police. The qualifying martyrdom incident
is routinely described in a section headlined “Date and Place of Event,” which
simply records “January 22, 2002, West Jerusalem.”
In the next section, “Description of Event,” the form
states, “He was martyred while executing a martyrdom operation in West
Jerusalem. The operation led to the death and injury of a number of Israelis.”
In a short biographical sketch, Ramadan is described in these words, “He was
known to be a calm person and faithful to his country. Among his expressions
was ‘O Martyr! You have tested my soul.’ He was martyred while performing his
nation duty.” The Establishment director ruled: “We recommend that he is
considered as one of the al-Aqsa Martyrs.”
Some weeks later, a Palestinian Authority internal
security document shows approval of the recommendation, concluding “Sergeant
Sa’id Ibrahim Sa’id Ramadan, from the Maritime Police/ Northern Governates, is
hereby approved as a martyr by the Palestinian Authority as of January 23,
2002, by rank and salary, as he was martyred while performing his national
duty.”
The money was “to be disbursed by General
Headquarters / Northern Governates / Martyr’s Roster.” Copies of the payment
order were routed to the PA’s Financial Administration, the Maritime Police,
Social Affairs, Medical Services, Supply and Equipment, and Computer
departments, among others.
How much would he get? A married martyr would have a
family payout of about 1,300 shekels monthly. But the family of an unmarried
martyr would only be entitled to 400 shekels. The money would go the father,
but when the elder Ramadan passed away, his allocation was transferred to
Ramadan’s mother, the documents record.
A posthumous August 2006 review stated, “The martyr
is single … His mother is alive. The martyr’s father passed away May 5, 2006. I
recommend a transfer to the martyr’s mother,” adding, “Her bank account number
at Cairo Amman Bank is 349834 … The Islamic Development Bank [previously used
by the father] shall be notified of the situation.”
The Barghouti and Ramadan cases
are just two of hundreds of terrorists who are rewarded for their actions – not
in a blind, faceless program, but in a meticulous, exacting official process
that can remain in place for years. The money is represented to donor countries
as “government salaries.” Most taxpayers in donor countries have no idea that
their well-intended money is actually financing the flames of terrorism.
No comments:
Post a Comment